Project 52 2026 week 40

My birthday week! Woo. Here’s what I got up to for week 39 of Project 52 for this year. It was a busy one.

Sunday – fairly relaxing day. Picked up my free M&S Sparks birthday treat. I usually get either cookies or grapes, but this year I got to choose from truffles or mini bites. That’s a very nice ‘£8’ box of chocolates, thanks Marks. Another day of washing done, but again able to hang it outside. Tried to start catching up on 70Up which I recorded, and also had chance to read quite a bit. 

Made the first crumble of the season from apples off the tree. There’s been so many apples this year, but most of them have fallen thanks to the lack of rain and not many are decent sized either.

Monday – back to work and school. Before work I made a healthy greek yoghurt based ‘cheesecake’ recipe I’d seen. It really wasn’t good – not sweet enough, texture wasn’t like the recipe tester had said. Won’t be making that again. But I’m definitely on a mission to find lots more healthy options for ‘sweet’ treats. 

N’s bus missed out our village, just stopping the other side at the crossroads. Evidently the bus driver had stopped and phoned in because another driver earlier had said there was a road closed sign. Except the road closed sign is for our road which is after the junction the bus should take into the village (and had no issues going the other way in the morning). Our road isn’t even shut, it’s the road ours leads onto, nowhere near the bus route that is shut. Sigh.

Tuesday – in the office work day. Super quiet there which was a shame not to see people. Was late leaving work so straight to dancing. Good class, quite busy. .

Wednesday – so cold working at home. The fingerless gloves came out. Outside wasn’t too bad, but windy. It’s just several of our windows were opened too far in the summer, and now can’t be pushed back into the frames so we have huge gaps. That’ll be lovely in winter with the drafts! Just a work day.

Had 2 flower deliveries – but why the delivery driver didn’t actually knock on the door, and just left the boxes outside in the rain I don’t know. 

Thursday – my birthday. Half century. Some very generous gifts from people. But not one person at work wished me happy birthday.  Admittedly we largely work remote (there were a couple of people on leave who would have remembered). But given how many people I’d told, including my manager…and it was in my calendar, not one person. Other people get online cards, and for big birthdays definitely a card. But I wish they’d just say no to everyone, because it’s gutting for those who don’t have people who care about doing cards.

I did have a good evening dancing though. Lots of birthday wishes and cards there, and they played/sung happy birthday.  

Friday – Normal short work day. Confusion at N’s dentist appointment as I thought it was reviewing by the orthodontist. Nope, it was evidently a check up. But we both have check ups booked in during half term – which were moved back 2 months due to them cancelling the other appointment. Why they didn’t notice he had multiple check ups in the same month I don’t know. Evidently his orthodontist appointment is in January but I didn’t have it booked in. I think because when we last went their systems were new and not set up for appointments, instead of ringing to arrange an appointment, they just randomly allocated them. So they’re due to ring me some time next week to fix it.

Social dancing in the evening. Had a brilliant evening with friends there. Lots of dancing, my new shoes are now broken in. Although it was a late night.

Saturday – early get up so we could go to Gloucestershire for a college open morning. Of course it was better than the other one we’ve seen, and the accommodation’s more expensive, even though he’ll have to share. But works out better being 7 days a week, being in college 5 days, with work experience in the summer after first year, rather than only college 4 random days and having to do work experience during holidays and weekends. So he just needs to get his personal statement sorted fast and apply, because it’s a popular college.

Traffic through roadworks going home was a nightmare, so it was tight getting back and getting ready to head back out. A friend and I were off to Leicester to see Adam Garcia in Emerald Storm. We had a really nice curry in a South Indian restaurant before – my mild curry was really tasty, but definitely not mild for English tastes! My mouth was tingly for a while after.

The show was really good, although not entirely as we’d expected it to be. But it was amazing to see Adam Garcia starring in it and dancing some amazing tap. Of course going home there were road closures, so big frustrating diversion through Coventry and another late night home.

New posts this week:

• No bake chocolate Weetabix slice recipe

Things I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Putting the worlds to rights with a couple of people
• Evening at the theatre with a friend
• All the best wishes at dancing

Things I’m grateful for this week:

• Good college tour and time with N
• Friends and birthday wishes
• Getting MOT booked in for the day I needed.